During Monday night’s The Voice Health Institute’s Raise Your Voice Gala honoring Julie Andrews in New York City, country music star Keith Urban confessed that he had gone under the knife to remove a vocal cord polyp.

As reported by Billboard, Urban told the attendees, “I didn’t realize how much low-grade depression I was really living with. My voice was vulnerable, so it made me insecure and made everything in my life vulnerable. When you healed it and fixed it the way you did, I felt my entire spirit and life lift. I got stressed way less, I didn’t have anxiety. It had such a profound effect on my whole being and world. That’s how important my voice is to me.”

Urban shared this intimate confession while praising the work of Dr. Steven Zeitels, the surgeon whose care has helped out the voices of other stars such as Julie Andrews, Sam Smith, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, and more.

The New Zealand native also explained that performing five nights a week for four hours a night during the early years of his career paired with a “less than healthy lifestyle” damaged his vocal cords. Fortunately, his wife Nicole Kidman and a conversation with fellow musician John Mayer convinced him to seek out help for his ongoing vocal issues.

Thank goodness he listened to Nicole and acted quickly to finally heal his vocal cords. Could you imagine a world without Urban’s distinctive voice? Here he is performing “Female” acoustically…

Fans will get plenty of opportunities to see Keith performing live this year! The superstar is set to start his GRAFFITI U World Tour on June 15th in St. Louis, Missouri and wrap it up in November with country music songstress Kelsea Ballerini providing direct tour support. Check out the tour stops below!